Starting this month, one of my favorite areas in Minneapolis will begin a year long process of getting a much needed face lift. Minnehaha Falls, located in Minnehaha Park, has been famous every since Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made the falls famous a century ago by writing the poem “The Song of Hiawatha”. Visitors, like those I photographed last year in the above photo, can walk beneath the falls in winter when it is frozen over, or throw rocks into the waterfall pool and bubbling stream in the summer.

For the price of $6.3 Million, Minnehaha Falls will have its crumbling retaining walls repaired, hiking trails fixed, creek banks stabilized, etc. Work will be going on during the winter because the area will be frozen over, and workers will not have to fight the water current. I visit Minnehaha Park a couple times a year and the banks are indeed eroded very badly. As long as the parks department keeps the renovations natural looking, I think everyone will welcome the improvements.